As much as Warner Brothers seems to only occasionally have any idea what it’s doing when it comes to superheroes, the animation wing seems to be doing OK. For the past few years, the company has been putting out a steady stream of direct-to-video animated movies, and one collection, dubbed the DC Animated Movie Universe, came to an end with this year’s Justice League Dark: Apokalips War. This was the Animated Movie Universe’s Avengers Endgame, so would the series go out with a bang or a whimper?
Ironically, the same day HBO Max went up on my Roku, DC Universe stopped working, but I knew the latter was coming and got this movie in the night before. It seemed…appropriate.
In many ways, this is what this Animated Universe has been building to since it started with either Flashpoint or Justice League: War. Somewhat loosely based initially on the drearier and more violent continuity of DC Comic’s “New 52” period, the Animated Movie Universe started with Darkseid’s invasion of Earth forcing seven superheroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Shazam, and Cyborg) to form a team to stop the evil New God before he made Earth the latest prize added to his collection. As the movies continued, more heroes and hero teams appeared, and characters like Wonder Woman, Superman, and especially Batman all got their own spin-off movies. However, after doing their own version of the Death and Return of Superman, the push has been for the League (grown to even include Lex Luthor) to take the fight directly to Darkseid and end his threat for the rest of time. Apokalips War, rated R for profanity and graphic violence, opens with John Constantine (Matt Ryan, who plays the character in live action on TV as well) waking up on the Justice League Watchtower next to Zatanna before the assembled heroes boomtube over to Apokalips and try to catch Darkseid by surprise. Leaving only the Titans and a few other heroes behind as a contingency, the group sets off.
And it goes bad because Darkseid, seeing through Cyborg, knew they were coming and ambushed the heroes with an army of “Paradooms,” creatures that are a cross between Darkseid’s parademons and the Superman-killing monster Doomsday. It’s a slaughter, and only a handful of heroes survive. Luthor comes back as a willing pawn of Darkseid to run things on Earth. Batman is brainwashed into becoming Darkseid’s unfeeling strategic planner. Superman had liquid kryptonite injected into his system enough to largely rob him of his powers so he would be forced to watch Darkseid bring the Earth under his heal. And Constantine, the main hero of the movie, ran from the battle back to Earth in a manner even he doesn’t quite understand. Constantine is a lot of things, but he’s never run from a fight before.
Time passes, and soon, John and his drinking buddy Etrigan the demon are called upon by the weakened Superman and one of the last surviving Teen Titans Raven to go off on one last daring plan that’s probably going to get everybody killed. It’ll involving sneaking around, a lot of death and destruction, and recruiting members of the League of Assassins and the Suicide Squad if there’s any hope for victory. And if there is, there probably won’t be too many good guys standing when it’s done.
Now, “Justice League Dark” is usually the title used to refer to the Justice League team that battles magical threats. The adventures tend to be more horror-related, but that isn’t really the team this movie follows here. Yes, John Constantine and his magical con man ways are on full display and in great need, but Superman doesn’t usually fit into that team. But this is a very dark movie. Many of the characters who appeared in the previous movies seem to show up just to die violent death. They get impaled, ripped apart, or have their necks snapped. What survivors there are at the end are largely damaged people, either physically or psychologically, the way this Animated Universe ends makes a lot of sense for why there won’t be more stories set in this universe. There isn’t much left to see or say.
But this does seem to go out with a bang, and if nothing else, the casting on these movies was always impressive. With Jerry O’Connell as Superman, his wife Rebecca Romjin as Lois Lane, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, and Jason O’Mara as Batman, there was a good core group for these movies. That said, the two best casting choices were probably the villains, Rainn Wilson’s Lex Luthor had the right amount of arrogance and intelligence to back it up while horror icon Tony Todd is a downright intimidating Datkseid. And Matt Ryan basically is John Constantine these days. And as grim as this movie was, it did remember to supply some humor. I found Harley Quinn more annoying than funny this time around as the leader of the Suicide Squad, but Etrigan, as a drunken demon just looking for one last good fight, and King Shark as a fellow who seems capable of only saying one sentence, both make for some dark humor that fits the setting of the movie. Still, a lot of well-loved DC characters bite the big one hard in this movie, so remember that before you put it on for the kids. It got an R-rating for a reason.
Grade: B
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